Photoshoot Plan Inspired by Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta

My first shoot is inspired by Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta. Their photos stimulate thought at the consequences of human activity on the earth and this definitely interests me as it is interesting to see how rapidly the world is changing and to imagine how it will become in the future. There are many aspects to the world which are changing for the better however also many for the worse too. I think it would be interesting to explore both of these changing worlds, for the better and for the worse. For both of these approaches i will use a photo manipulation method to over exaggerate the changing world and the social/political issues in relation to the environment.

For this shoot I will follow the similar approach to my artist reference of Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta by looking at the negative impacts on our earth due to human activity. This could be a variety of different issues such as air/noise/ light pollution, habitat loss and plastic in seas. I think it would be interesting to look at an abandoned/derelict area and incorporate  a similar aspect to my artist such as wrapping up an object in cling film or perhaps have a person wrapped up escaping the harsh conditions. Also it would be engaging to have my model using the abandoned place as it would have been used when it was functional. This will give the image a clear juxtaposition and exaggerate the poor conditions in its current state.

I intend to show the viewer a glimpse of places long forgotten through the my images and allow them to serve as an eerie reminder that nothing lasts forever. I want to produce examples of humanity’s wastefulness and the impact society has on nature. By doing this i can engage with the audience and influence them to change the way in which they think about and treat the environment.

FERNANDO MASELLI – Artist Reference

The photographic work of Fernando Maselli explores different aspects of the formalism, deepening the aesthetic and concept as core values. Born in Buenos Aires in 1978, Fernando Maselli studied Fine Arts and later moved to Madrid. His work has been exhibited in many museums and festivals like University of Navarra Museum.

Through his art projects he explores different aspects of formalism, deepening on the concept and aesthetics as essential values. In his latest work there is a  specific interest in the relationship between man and unspoiled nature and the role it plays in the conception of ideas such as religiosity or knowledge. The main focus of his work revolves around  the concept of the Sublime, the restrained fear facing the beauty of steep landscapes and the majesty linked to divinity.

There are many key features to the work of Maselli with such elements like the vastness, the darkness and the hugeness but especially an attribute that Burke called artificial infinite: an element that is repeated many times in a constant and uninterrupted configuration generates in the viewer a sense of infinity. To get this effect, Maselli spends several days in the mountains, taking pictures and later, in his studio, he rebuilds those parts into a new landscape through photo montage. 

“I face my job as a solo journey into vastness with constant references to classical painting, literature, philosophy and aesthetics. My ultimate intention is to put the viewer in front of a sublime and moving show that  makes him wonder about consciousness, the universe, beliefs and our own origin.”

Analysis

The generic conventions within  Maselli’s work is the untouched sublime environment . The photographer clearly has a positive view on the earth and is going on specific expeditions to portray the greatness of the world. However it could be interpreted that he has a negative view on the environment because the locations he goes to would not usually be seen by people without purpose and these locations are rare. Therefore he is trying to show society the difference between what they are seeing in everyday life compared to what is out there. This will give the viewer a realization of how they are treating the environment in their areas. I believe the photographers influence is the rapid urbanization around the world and he has responded to this by showing the beautiful nature that we are destroying with this urbanization.

I am influenced by the use of isolation involved within this image and the calmness/tranquil atmosphere. This could be an indication that without humans present, we could have this stunning imagery surrounding us everywhere. The tonal range is aesthetically pleasing to help us focus in on different aspects to the photo. The composition is well composed as the tall mountains on either side create a leading line through the middle of the photo to direct us to the lighter tones at the back of the photo. The bottom  parts of the photo appear to be dark and rather mysterious which may be a reference to hell being down there and a dark place where as the higher parts of the photo are bright which in contrast could link to heaven being up there and being a positive place. The textures within the photo as a whole are interesting with a contrast of rough textures within the rocks and the soft calm textures within the mist.

GUILLAUME BRESSION & CARLOS AYESTA – Artist Reference

Since the tsunami and the nuclear catastrophe of March 2011, Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression have made regular visits to the region of Fukushima, Japan, and especially to the “no man’s land” around the stricken power station. Achieved from their numerous visits is a six series of strongly aesthetic photographs which mix posed situations with a documentary approach. Their photos stimulate thought at the consequences of a nuclear accident on such a scale which connect with the audience on an emotional level.

Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression have been working together since 2009. Their work has been exhibited in many festivals and institutions. Through their photographic approach, they have the ambition to show social issues, but always with a contemporary questioning of the image, thanks to the staging in the broad sense, they wish to show other facets of real life.

To me, their work has a strong purpose to show the world how we as humans are destroying our earth. It focuses on the destruction of buildings and how demonstrates how once used facilities have been left to decay and rot. I beleive their images are aesthetically pleasing however the actual concepts displayed are visually disturbing as it they create a realization of how our earth is in decline.

Analysis

Responding to the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster at the fukushima daiichi power plant which contaminated parts of japan in 2011, the french photographers have photographed a series that interprets the tragedy from the perspective of both the inhabitants and landscape. By traveling to these areas, the artists were able to react to the landscape, incorporating surreal dramatizations into the environment through the use of transparent props like bubbles and films. These clear elements symbolize the idea of contamination, acknowledging a problem currently facing residents of these devastated areas: what is safe and what is still polluted? the limits are increasingly more blurry, instilling a widespread sense of fear and uncertainty.

Personally, I believe this photo is visually pleasing due to the composition, contrasting colors and lighting which directs the viewer across the whole photo. The composition meets the rule of thirds which makes the photo easy to view and understand. The main focal point of the photo is the isolated man within the bubble and he is positioned on the bottom left hand point when talking about the rule of thirds. In addition, the photograph is split into thirds with the fields taking up two thirds of the photograph and the sky and trees taking up the final third. This rule helps draw the viewer’s eye into the composition, instead of just glancing at the center.

I believe the fields act as a leading line towards the deeper parts of the photo with the forest. The forest consists of very tall trees which illuminate the isolation of the small man towards the front of the photo. The trees could be seen as a metaphor looking down on the man, intimidating him which is a reference to the harsh climate there also. The bubble is effective in  conveying the conceptual ideas behind the photograph. This is because it is seen to be protecting him from the pollution and radiation that is active in that area.

     Contact Sheet For the Background

I believe this photo shoot was effective in collating what I needed for my photos to be aesthetically pleasing. I simply ventured around town and took pictures of interesting walls straight on which would make it easier in post production to edit graffiti on. I tried to refrain from photographing plain walls with little texture as i wanted to enhance the concept and meaning of the images other than the graffiti once added in by having these interesting backgrounds.

Edited Images

The two images above have been constructed to show a narrative about a girl in a 3rd world country/war zone that has very little about her life due to the upbringing in a poor area. Therefore, due to her unfortunate place of home, she has to make use of what is around by using a grenade as a ball and a slanted wall as a slide.

The image above could be interpreted in many ways. An interpretation of this could be about the political issue of migration and the extreme extents that people put themselves in to get across the boarder. This makes the audience aware of this situation and may influence them to change the way they think about migrants and the reasons they are coming to a new country.

The two images above relate to negative environmental issues and how people don’t care about how we are treating the planet. The top image of the biker shows an avoidance of cleaning up because instead of removing the litter he is using it for a BMX stunt. The photo below clearly shows how society are inconsiderate and will vandalize buildings which also reflects the way people treat the environment.

I believe that all of these edits show significance and political meaning with issues inflicted such as war, migration and environmental issues too. Each individual image can be interpreted in a variety of ways conveying their own politicized story and each viewer can interpret the story in ways that may relate to them. They can be interpreted in a variety of ways linking to the individual as my images show diversity as the stories aren’t immediately visible which I think helps to engage with the audience as they can bring their own experiences to the images and narrative.

I think the above image is my most powerful and effective image due to the narrative created and thoughts that it can stimulate to the viewer. The image reflects the conditions in war and how the younger generation are innocent yet suffering. I believe the composition works well to draw the audience to the focus points of the photo such as the girl, grenade and sign. The texture of the wall works well in conjunction with the concept of the image as it reflects a rather torn up area like a war zone would be like. The photo manipulation method is similar to Alice Wielinga’s work and the graffiti style and concept relates to Banksy’s work.

Editing Process

Second Manipulation Photoshoot Plan and research

After my last shoot, I thought it would be interesting to continue the similar theme yet explore how bunkers are used in modern day. In the previous photo shoot, i explored the contrast between the soldiers in action in WW2 and the bunkers as they are presented today. This gave a timeline of about 70 years of history which is effective in displaying how the world changes and how we learn from these political issues.

In the previous shoot i used some bunkers as the main significance and focal point and for this shoot i intend to do the same. However the story that will be portrayed in this shoot is how these historically significant pieces of architecture are being vandalized by graffiti. I will still use a photo manipulation method by turning some of my photos into graffiti and impose them onto the bunker. An artist which has further developed my ideas and stemmed my thinking into creating this shoot is Banksy.

Banksy

Banksy is an anonymous England based graffiti artist, political activist and film director of unverified identity. His satirical street art combine dark humor with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self built physical prop pieces. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. Banksy’s work grew out of the Birstol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

Banksy’s name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian, Banksy is described as “white, 28, scruffy casual – jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime. According to Hattenstone, “anonymity is vital to him because graffiti is illegal”. 

Analysis

Banksy’s work portrays strong messages to a wide range of different people. He is not only seen as an artist but as a political spokesman against capitalism, war, theism, totalitarianism and fascism. This piece of artwork clearly resembles his strong views on war and that the innocent younger generation are suffering even though they are not inflicting the war. This piece of work is hard hitting and makes the viewer think about other parts of the world that are suffering. I think Banksy intends to bring a realization to people to make them think how lucky they are and that they could help make a difference to those unfortunate individuals across the sea. Although this is not photography, the artistic approach includes political ideas which i  will take inspiration from to portray in my work.

Photoshoot Plan

Concept– To photograph a variety of portrait pictures that can be turned into graffiti and placed onto a series of bunkers images that I have also taken. In addition, try and create a political message similar to Banksy and Alice Wielinga’s work and use a manipulation method for the final outcome.

Genre/Artist – Inspired by Alice Wielinga’s North Korea work that has been manipulated and further inspiration from Banksy’s graffiti work with political engagement.

Location – The main locations will be coastal areas where the majority of the bunkers are located. The portrait shots i intend to capture will be scattered across a variety of locations. In addition to using Bunkers, i will try and explore other areas to create other political messages.

Lighting – I will use natural lighting at different times of the day to create a realistic mood similar to the photographed work that Banksy creates.

My idea for this shoot has changed from my initial thoughts when researching Alice Wielinga’s work. Originally I wanted to explore the difference between reality and the marking of jersey which would have definite similarities with Alice Wielinga’s work. However my ideas now are based towards the war and occupation and i will use archival images contrasted with modern day images that i have taken. I will do this with a photo manipulation process similar to Wielinga’s work where i layer the two photos onto each other. The war was a very significant part of Jerseys history and i think it would be interesting to document this in a modern day perspective and contrasting it with the persepctive of the actual time of the war. This could stimulate some emotional response within the viewer and allow them to reflect on history and possibly learn from it.

Inspiration from Alice Wielinga

Contact Sheet

Although this photoshoot was rather limited, I believe due to the clear intent i had going into it, i was able to gather the images that i needed in order to complete what i set out to do. Also, the combination of the archival images meant that I had many photos already for this task and therefore didn’t need as many as i would usually take. I think the images for this shoot came out well and the bright lighting illuminated the bunkers features well. The sharpness of this images means that i have huge flexibility when coming to the editing/manipulation process.

My Photo-manipulation Outcomes

I think the two above photos are interesting due to to the concepts of the images and how the frame has been used significantly. The frame in which i have placed the archival image of the soldiers in is shot through a window within an actual bunker itself. This has significance because this is where these soldiers would have spent the majority of the time within the occupation. I think it is also interesting to view the original image and see the fortress that is also their workplace and the picture can create the narrative about looking into the workplace and lives of the soldiers through the frame.

Within the three images above i tried to use a similar approach as  Alice Wielinga’s North korean work. The archival images are in black and white and i thought it would look better to have my modern photos with the similar old look to them. To create the old grungy feel to my images, i used an overlay of an old piece of paper and used the overlay blending mode within photoshop as well as change in opacity. I think that my images have been successful in portraying what war life looked like and how this compares with the remains of the war. Below is one of my manipulated photographs which shows how the overlay helps to give the old grungy aesthetic.

An article by Lewis Bush called ‘ Eight ‘rules’ of photography that are worth breaking ‘ explains how breaking the rules of photography can be extremely beneficial. Within the article he talks about how breaking the rules can be a new way of seeing the world and how real stories of our time aren’t always plain to see. He follows on from this to say that the most interesting concepts are not clearly visible and to gather what we really want to see, photographers have to break the rules and push the boundaries.

Bush talks about a photographer called William Eugene Smith who is an American photojournalist, very dedicated to his projects.  In 1955, the 36-year-old photographer traveled to Pittsburgh on what was meant to be a three-week assignment, but which became a year-long ‘amphetamine-fuelled photographic binge’. He came away with 17,000 images and then later relocated to Japan, documenting the consequences of devastating industrial pollution. In the process he faced extreme violence from the people he exposed and became very involved with some of the people he was photographing. He was, in the words of one writer, “the man who tried to document everything”. Despite breaking nearly every photographic rule, Smith was one a very successful photographer and gained a well deserved place in photographic history. Some of these rules broken includes, posing his subjects, manipulating his prints, and often becoming dangerously over-involved in his stories. When asked by one interviewer why he so persistently ignored many of the fundamental factors and rules of documentary photography, he said “I didn’t write the rules – why should I follow them?”

During his successful photographic career, Smith broke nearly every rule there was in photography. Some of these included, posing his subjects, manipulating his prints and becoming dangerously involved in his stories. When people questioned him to why he broke the rules he said, “I didn’t write them- why should I follow them?”  Smith proved that successful photographers can break the rules. Bush writes that many rules restrict the medium, “serve vested interests and prevent photographers from revealing the critical issues that are shaping our modern world.”  Here are some images by Smith.

There are the eight rules that Bush talks about. The rule of Objectivity, the rule of Audience, The rule of Manipulation, The rule of Reality, The rule of Technicality, The rule of ownership, The rule of the camera and the Rule of rule breaking. The rule that I will be exploring the rule of manipulation.

This rule is about the way that photographers are forbidden from using digital editing to manipulate the meaning of their images. The purpose of this rule is to provide truthful stories that can be trusted.  Steve McCurry, a long-revered photojournalist, was revealed in 2016 to have been exhibiting and selling prints which had been heavily manipulated to remove elements. Responding to the uproar, McCurry quickly claimed that he was in fact “not a photojournalist”. Bush suggests that almost every stage of the photographic process is a manipulation, and is open to no less shocking misrepresentations. A documentary filmmaker Errol Morris states that you don’t need to manipulate an image to mislead an audience; you simply need to change the caption. He also says that in the right context, manipulation can reveal truth. A Dutch photographer Alice Wielinga traveled to North Korea however found it significantlly difficult to capture the truth. She said “I felt that, with mere documenting, I wasn’t able to tell the story as I was experiencing it”. Her response was to digitally merge her photographs of official North Korea propaganda with her own images of workers and decaying factories.

Documentary Approach

Through a documentary approach to this theme I would be interested to tell realist stories significant and relevant to history and historical events that affect us now as well as everyday life. I would mainly focus in on the contemporary issues surrounding a particular area and portray this to the audience. Documentary photography generally relates to longer term projects with a more complex story line which intend to explore with possible such projects as the human destruction to our earth while photojournalism concerns more breaking news stories. I will also use this approach which can often overlap with documentary photography with its close relationship to the news media and therefore political landscapes too.

Despite the fact that documentary and photo journalist approaches often will focus mainly on the narrative as a pose to an aesthetically pleasing image, I will ensure to incorporate the most interesting images as well as conveying these stories. My style of photography is more focused on producing aesthetically pleasing images and therefore i intend on  carrying this on through the different approaches to photography that I explore. This will mean that my personal photography style is portrayed through my work although i may be exploring other styles and photographers.

Creative Approach

Through a creative approach I would explore photo manipulation to exaggerate political issues and make the viewer clearly aware of them. I think this approach could work with any theme but in particular I have the idea of exploring environmental issues. As well as creating images powerful within its composition, lighting and coloring  I want to explore using Photoshop to create more abstract and interesting images which cannot be seen in real life.  Using photo manipulation will help to present my conceptual ideas a lot stronger.

Mood Board

Local Example

An example of political landscape in Jersey is the current situation and debate surrounding the  building of new hospital. This has caused a lot of controversy with regards to where the building will be built and how it will affect the community as well as the patients that are in the current hospital. A lot of money has been spent on the research and planning of the new building however to the public nothing has been achieved. This has caused outrage as people believe that money is being wasted which could be used to help the community and Jersey as a whole.

International Example

An international example of a political landscape is the ongoing conflict and war based in Afghanistan. The US-led war in Afghanistan was a response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on America and has been continued since.

This research of political landscapes on a local and international level has helped me develop a better understanding of a political landscape. To me, a political landscape is any issue or story that can be related to by the community. It is all the issues that are presented through the media and through the government whether that be on a personal level e.g. race, disability, gender or as a community e.g. environmental change, war, human rights.